Torque 3D Development - Matt Langley and the Torque Launcher
by Brett Seyler · 02/06/2009 (9:18 pm) · 98 comments
After an unexpected delay this week, we have yet another peek at the future of Torque with Torque 3D. This week, we're going to finally get a small look at some of the real, functional improvements to working with Torque.
Leading this effort is our own Matt Langley. Matt's our primary tools guru at the Garage and he's been at GG for almost 4 years now. Matt played an instrumental role in designing the TGB editors you all love for making 2D games, and for the past year, he's been fully focused on tools for our 3D technology.
Though most of you probably know Matt, I asked him to tell us a little about himself and what he's working on for Torque 3D.
Matt's Bio
"I graduated with a degree in Networking and Game Design. I joined the GG community, learned TGE and TGB (then "Torque 2D"...soon to be again). I contributed 10 tutorials and thousands of posts to the Torque 2D community, and then became a GarageGames Associate. After interning at GarageGames and becoming an employee, I became one of the original developers behind Torque Game Builder, which added documentation and a tool to Torque 2D while still expanding the engine."
"After managing TGB documentation and then a TGB release, I'm now the lead tool developer for Torque 3D. This work includes updates to the usability of the present tool interface as well as adding new tools and editors to streamline game development in Torque."
As you all know, Torque is one of the few engines with the entire toolset integrated in the runtime. There are advantages and disadvantages to this approach. It's great for cross-platform development and it provides fantastic out-of-the-box functionality for developers who want to include some game-modding functionality in their game. It also keeps the runtime toolset necessarily lightweight.
There are times though, when you want to do more. With Torque 3D, we wanted to create some project management, packaging, and deployment tools separate from the Torque 3D runtime. "Torque Launcher" is an application built just for that purpose. More than just a build targeting and project selection interface, the Torque Launcher provides a nice hub for your game development projects. You can select which of Torque's runtime integrated editors you'd like to jump into (per project of course), you can access non-Torque tools like Maya or Photoshop, and you can view Torque 3D documentation and tutorials.
While not intended to be comprehensive, the Torque Launcher is a very nice interface to have. It's even better to have it all outside the Torque 3D runtime. It keeps everything inside Torque 3D light, lean, and focused on productivity for game design.
Of course, the shots you see here are very raw yet. The Torque Launcher may finish with a much different design or style than you see here. We'd call this a 1st draft :)
There's much more changing in the Torque 3D editor's as well, and Matt's leading the charge there too. Expect to see more inside Torque 3D soon.
More development blogs to come. This is post #9.
Torque 3D development blogs:
- Post #1 - Kickoff
- Post #2 - Apparatus and Warrior Camp
- Post #3 - Luma's racing kit
- Post #4 - Josh Engebretson and Web Publishing
- Post #5 - Pricing and Licensing
- Post #6 - Pricing and Licensing CONTINUED
- Post #7 - Wetness & Precipitation
- Post #8 - Screeen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO)
- Post #9 - Matt Langley and the Torque Launcher
- Post #10 - Chris Robertson and Collada
- Post #11 - Depth of Field
- Post #12 - Advanced Lighting
- Post #13 - Soft Particles
- Post #14 - World Editor
- Post #15 - Pricing and Licensing ANNOUNCED!
- Post #16 - GDC Live Edition
- Post #17 - River & Road Editors
- Post #18 - Beta is UP!
- Post #19 - Light Rays, Undercity, Material Editor
- Post #20 - Mass Market Hardware
- Post #21 - Beta: Part Deux
- Post #22 - Marching Towards Beta 3
- Post #23 - pureLIGHT
- Post #24 - Lighting, Terrain, and Cloth
- Post #25 - Beta 3!
- Post #26 - Coming Soon!
About the author
Since 2007, I've done my best to steer Torque's development and brand toward the best opportunities in games middleware.
#42
<off-topic>
So are you guys going to be doing any work on the content pipeline? New importers and/or support of different filetypes would be great. Integrating Constructor with the runtime would be cool as well.
And please, please overhaul the terrain texturing code. Having a single detail map for the entire terrain really sucks.
</off-topic>
02/08/2009 (12:34 am)
This "Torque Launcher" is simplistic at best...not to put down Matt's work. It would be great if it included powerful asset management capabilities and other useful stuff. Being "just a launcher" isn't all that great, but it's a start.<off-topic>
So are you guys going to be doing any work on the content pipeline? New importers and/or support of different filetypes would be great. Integrating Constructor with the runtime would be cool as well.
And please, please overhaul the terrain texturing code. Having a single detail map for the entire terrain really sucks.
</off-topic>
#43
Everything Im working with at my finger-tips.!
Fantastic!
02/08/2009 (12:49 am)
What a Simple yet amazing idea....!Everything Im working with at my finger-tips.!
Fantastic!
#44
02/08/2009 (3:38 am)
I have to agree with Joe. It would be great to hear about the content pipeline. One detail map is also a joke at best. 
#45
02/08/2009 (4:14 am)
I hope they add Houdini to it (like they did with Maya, and Photoshop)
#46
02/08/2009 (4:39 am)
@Joe:Quote:So are you guys going to be doing any work on the content pipeline?We've mentioned quite a few things we're doing already, but yes, you'll see a lot more content pipeline improvements in upcoming blogs.
#47
Where the app described in this blog would be useful is if asset management and other similar capabilities were added to it. Once those capabilities are added, integrate it with the runtime. Don't launch the runtime from it. We can strip it out at shipping time.
Who needs a pretty launcher? I'd be just as productive with my 3 Windows Explorer windows open, and the quick launch bar at the bottom of my desktop.
Again, I don't mean to knock Matt's work. Matt has been around for some time, and I respect what he's done. I just think if this is it, he's selling himself short.
02/08/2009 (5:23 am)
Brett, what you've mentioned in previous blogs are not "content pipeline." They're pretty additions to the graphics capabilities. I'm looking for ease of getting content into T3D and ease of working with it once it's in T3D. Not to rehash old arguments or anything, but think for a minute about the mod tools that come with UT, Far Cry, or other games. Those are just mod tools, and they're far better than what TGEA currently has. I can't speak for everyone, but I know the lack of that quality of tools is a real impediment to progress for some of us. :)Where the app described in this blog would be useful is if asset management and other similar capabilities were added to it. Once those capabilities are added, integrate it with the runtime. Don't launch the runtime from it. We can strip it out at shipping time.
Who needs a pretty launcher? I'd be just as productive with my 3 Windows Explorer windows open, and the quick launch bar at the bottom of my desktop.
Again, I don't mean to knock Matt's work. Matt has been around for some time, and I respect what he's done. I just think if this is it, he's selling himself short.
#48
Matt showed in a previous post how those links are customizeable. You can add your own app there among the others. :)
02/08/2009 (5:25 am)
@Ebonixs:Matt showed in a previous post how those links are customizeable. You can add your own app there among the others. :)
#49
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4yIxIhO23c
Sorry, I really, really just couldn't help myself. I've been listening to bad 80's music all evening. ^_^
In all seriousness, though, Joe, this is just what Matt's been working on for the last few weeks. He's also tag teamed with Josh Engebretson on some of the work he's done, and has other editor-related plans on his plate.
02/08/2009 (5:28 am)
Quote:I just think if this is it, he's selling himself short.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4yIxIhO23c
Sorry, I really, really just couldn't help myself. I've been listening to bad 80's music all evening. ^_^
In all seriousness, though, Joe, this is just what Matt's been working on for the last few weeks. He's also tag teamed with Josh Engebretson on some of the work he's done, and has other editor-related plans on his plate.
#50
I'm just throwing in my two cents. If everyone here says "great job" and jumps on the fanboy bandwagon, then where is the motivation to excel? =D
02/08/2009 (5:31 am)
Nice one Deb. ;)I'm just throwing in my two cents. If everyone here says "great job" and jumps on the fanboy bandwagon, then where is the motivation to excel? =D
#51
I don't think there has been any lack of motivational speeches over the last few months, one thread of nice comments isn't too much to hope for :P
02/08/2009 (5:36 am)
Now you've done it, got Deb pulling out the News.I don't think there has been any lack of motivational speeches over the last few months, one thread of nice comments isn't too much to hope for :P
#52
/end hijack. Back to the topic!
02/08/2009 (5:41 am)
@Joe and Gerald: No, the comments are all good. I'm personally really pleased with both the positive support and constructive criticism we have received from the community in the past month. There's been lots of announcements and changes, but it's all been received in an appropriate manner (neither too fanboy-ish or too Internet troll-y). In my opinion, the community and company are communicating in a way that we haven't seen in years, which is fantastic. /end hijack. Back to the topic!
#53
02/08/2009 (6:09 am)
remember to include Houdini in the editor tool bar!
#54
02/08/2009 (6:27 am)
Matthew, we were shown how we can add it ourselves. Read Matt's posts. :) 
#55
Some good comments, let me try and give you some responses (just know there are some things we can't talk about yet, that's what these blogs are all about, showing bit by bit, this is just one of the improvements).
"This "Torque Launcher" is simplistic at best"
Very very true. Any one piece of functionality of the Launcher is very simple. Though I've learned to not take something being "simple" as an insult, but in some ways as a complement, especially when it comes to tools. Some of the most useful tools are "simplistic." The things that save time the most are often the simplest. Let me share an example that is relevant to me personally.
Tortoise SVN for Windows. Any one piece of functionality is extremely simple. Most of them simply are easy ways to call single command lines calls. Ridiculously simple one might say. Though it's probably one of the biggest efficiency gaining tools I use.
Visual Studios. My favorite IDE :) 90% of it I don't use and if you look at the 10% of it that I do use you can boil them down to very simple things.
Simple things exposed accessibly can be the most useful of things. Developing a functional tool to do simple things is easy and fast. Developing a functional tool to do simple things in an easy and accessible way can be immensely hard. Not hard as in coding complexity but primarily in design, planning, and work flow. Though some of the simplest things can take a lot of work to go the last 10% of usability. A small example, making a quick edit tool bar like is shown configured via an XML files... not a lot of work. Creating an editing interface that makes creating your own very easily and with a high level of usability, that at least tripples the amount of work. So something that is simple doesn't become harder, but takes much more work. Then the hard part is in the subtilties. Making a tool that works and one that works well and is easy to use is a world of difference.
It's very much like going from doing SVN command line to using something like Tortoise SVN. Very simplistic but amazingly useful :) That is my goal in this specific tool, there is also more than is seen, more things that will make it more useful and make those tedious tasks much less so.
"Again, I don't mean to knock Matt's work. Matt has been around for some time, and I respect what he's done. I just think if this is it, he's selling himself short."
I appreciate that comment, even if it is somewhat of a sideways compliment. There is always at least 10x more work behind what is seen that what seems to be shown, this is true in just about anything. On top of that my responsibility is managing, tracking, and planning all tool improvements in Torque 3D. This is the one single tool that I'm contributing to it, though it's been in-between my primarily responsibilities.
It seems like a lot of people can envision the usefulness of this, some have made some very good suggestions that would increase it. There is also more than what is shown here and probably even more by the time it reaches release. So I would ask that you reserve judgement until then and just be as constructive as possible. This isn't all the tool work being done, simply one piece of it. Keep in mind these blogs are supposed to show things to you one step at a time.
The suggestions you gave were good ones, even if you could of probably been more constructive. There are a lot of improvements that can be made to the current tools, some just a big compilation of little things, others requiring quit a bit of underlying work. We have to start somewhere.
02/08/2009 (6:39 am)
@Joe Melton:Some good comments, let me try and give you some responses (just know there are some things we can't talk about yet, that's what these blogs are all about, showing bit by bit, this is just one of the improvements).
"This "Torque Launcher" is simplistic at best"
Very very true. Any one piece of functionality of the Launcher is very simple. Though I've learned to not take something being "simple" as an insult, but in some ways as a complement, especially when it comes to tools. Some of the most useful tools are "simplistic." The things that save time the most are often the simplest. Let me share an example that is relevant to me personally.
Tortoise SVN for Windows. Any one piece of functionality is extremely simple. Most of them simply are easy ways to call single command lines calls. Ridiculously simple one might say. Though it's probably one of the biggest efficiency gaining tools I use.
Visual Studios. My favorite IDE :) 90% of it I don't use and if you look at the 10% of it that I do use you can boil them down to very simple things.
Simple things exposed accessibly can be the most useful of things. Developing a functional tool to do simple things is easy and fast. Developing a functional tool to do simple things in an easy and accessible way can be immensely hard. Not hard as in coding complexity but primarily in design, planning, and work flow. Though some of the simplest things can take a lot of work to go the last 10% of usability. A small example, making a quick edit tool bar like is shown configured via an XML files... not a lot of work. Creating an editing interface that makes creating your own very easily and with a high level of usability, that at least tripples the amount of work. So something that is simple doesn't become harder, but takes much more work. Then the hard part is in the subtilties. Making a tool that works and one that works well and is easy to use is a world of difference.
It's very much like going from doing SVN command line to using something like Tortoise SVN. Very simplistic but amazingly useful :) That is my goal in this specific tool, there is also more than is seen, more things that will make it more useful and make those tedious tasks much less so.
"Again, I don't mean to knock Matt's work. Matt has been around for some time, and I respect what he's done. I just think if this is it, he's selling himself short."
I appreciate that comment, even if it is somewhat of a sideways compliment. There is always at least 10x more work behind what is seen that what seems to be shown, this is true in just about anything. On top of that my responsibility is managing, tracking, and planning all tool improvements in Torque 3D. This is the one single tool that I'm contributing to it, though it's been in-between my primarily responsibilities.
It seems like a lot of people can envision the usefulness of this, some have made some very good suggestions that would increase it. There is also more than what is shown here and probably even more by the time it reaches release. So I would ask that you reserve judgement until then and just be as constructive as possible. This isn't all the tool work being done, simply one piece of it. Keep in mind these blogs are supposed to show things to you one step at a time.
The suggestions you gave were good ones, even if you could of probably been more constructive. There are a lot of improvements that can be made to the current tools, some just a big compilation of little things, others requiring quit a bit of underlying work. We have to start somewhere.
#56
I agree that sometimes simple tools are the best tools. What you're creating here will be useful to everyone, I'm sure...probably including myself. I'm just anxious to see more tools that will help ease the workflow in the more painful areas of Torque, i.e. the areas I mentioned in my previous posts.
So again, my apologies if I seemed insensitive.
02/08/2009 (8:34 am)
Hey, thanks for the response Matt. I meant my comments to be constructive, and made every attempt to point out that I wasn't knocking your work. Forgive me. I spend every day as a network admin, dealing with users. I've lost my sensitive side. =PI agree that sometimes simple tools are the best tools. What you're creating here will be useful to everyone, I'm sure...probably including myself. I'm just anxious to see more tools that will help ease the workflow in the more painful areas of Torque, i.e. the areas I mentioned in my previous posts.
So again, my apologies if I seemed insensitive.
#57
I really hope GG updates the Show Tool to support Materials n all.
02/08/2009 (10:59 am)
Hmmmmmm .... FPS Genre Kit? Whats that? I really hope GG updates the Show Tool to support Materials n all.
#58
How about Torque PLATE
(Project Launcher And Toolbox Environment)
02/08/2009 (3:48 pm)
Looking good :)How about Torque PLATE
(Project Launcher And Toolbox Environment)
#59
This looks... interesting. I'd love to see it in action, because typically I haven't used project management sorts of tools - when I did use CodeWeaver to manage my scripts, I found myself just going straight to the script I wanted to edit instead of waiting to open the project and then navigate to the script. I guess this is much more than that, though.
Keep up the good work, GG!
02/08/2009 (8:22 pm)
Quote:"I do like the ring of torque toolbox, i would also throw the word "workshop" out , as it kind of reminds me of that. "Torque Workshop? Torqueshop ;)
I do like the ring of "workshop." Might have to keep that in mind for future use (if it doesn't come into play now).
This looks... interesting. I'd love to see it in action, because typically I haven't used project management sorts of tools - when I did use CodeWeaver to manage my scripts, I found myself just going straight to the script I wanted to edit instead of waiting to open the project and then navigate to the script. I guess this is much more than that, though.
Keep up the good work, GG!
#60
Web publishing is my sole concern: it's a critical path node on a current production with a tight release schedule. I cannot get an answer from IA/GG about pricing for IA Tiers of support, and cannot get a release date for web publishing for Torque, and the thread on building a browser plug-in has been pulled down.
So, knowing when T3D won't ship by would help me make a key technology decision. Hearing nothing will also help, but certainly not in GG's favor.
02/09/2009 (2:34 pm)
Can we get a date on T3D before which it will NOT be released? For instance, will it definitely NOT ship by GDC? Will it NOT ship before Q3? Web publishing is my sole concern: it's a critical path node on a current production with a tight release schedule. I cannot get an answer from IA/GG about pricing for IA Tiers of support, and cannot get a release date for web publishing for Torque, and the thread on building a browser plug-in has been pulled down.
So, knowing when T3D won't ship by would help me make a key technology decision. Hearing nothing will also help, but certainly not in GG's favor.
Torque 3D Owner Gerald Fishel